A method for the thermal coating of a component stack which includes a component is known from EP 2 029 317 B1 wherein the component has a continuous component opening and can be a bearing component, in particular a connecting rod made from a formed part. In a bearing component, the continuous component opening is formed by a bearing floor and a bearing cover wherein an inner peripheral surface, or bounding surface, of the component opening includes a divided component seat, in particular a bearing seat. Furthermore, a component coating made from a layer material, for example, a component seat for housing a shaft is formed at the inner bounding surface. In this method, the component is aligned with respect to a stack axis such that the component stack has a continuous stack opening, wherein the stack opening includes a first stack opening surface and a second stack opening surface and the first stack opening surface and the second stack opening surface are arranged along the stack axis. During the coating process an inner bounding surface of the component opening is thermally coated from the inside by a coating beam by means of a thermal spray apparatus.
The aim of this known method is the coating of the inner bounding surface of the components which are arranged as a component stack. The desired component coating in this connection should have a smooth and continuous layer extent and be formed having regular or even layer thicknesses. The formation of such a component coating by this method known from the prior art is, however, only possible if the angle between the coating beam and the inner bounding surface is not too flat and is ideally approximately perpendicular to the inner bounding surface. However, since the angle of the coating beam is fixed, this method only works for components whose inner bounding surface, for example, has a straight inner cross-section. This is different for components whose inner bounding surfaces have an inner cross-section having a non-uniform or a convex geometry. For these components, the angle of the coating beam is too flat in part regions such that a smooth and continuous layer extent and a component coating having regular or even layer thicknesses are not formed.